


The Calling in of the Big Guns

by danika (persephone20)



Category: Glee
Genre: F/F, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-07-29
Updated: 2011-09-15
Packaged: 2017-10-21 22:29:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 9,495
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/230557
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/persephone20/pseuds/danika
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jesse wants to get Rachel back. Santana wants to get Brittany back. Only, it isn't as simple as that, even when Jesse and Santana team up to do it. End of Season 2, before and during Nationals.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

"You missed me singing Chicago. 'Nowadays / Hot Honey Rag'. Short dress. Sequins."

Jesse groaned. For him, this was worse than porn. "Stop it. Please."

Rachel smirked. Reached over to the other side of the car to let herself out. This hadn't been a date, she told herself, leaning away from him so as not to give into the temptation. Don't turn to kiss him. Don't turn to kiss him. "Goodnight, Jesse. Thank you for a wonderful--"

"Don't go. At least..." From beneath his heavy lashes, he shot a look up towards her bedroom window. Rachel followed the direction of that look, saw where it led.

"No Jesse. It's too... soon." That familiar little crease came between her eyebrows. She reached for the car door again, this time not looking at him. "Goodnight, Jesse."

*

The previous year at McKinley, the scariest duo had been Quinn and Kurt. The idea of the two of them getting together and coming up with a plan... any plan...

This year things were different at McKinley. Jesse had seen that even during his limited time here. Quinn had had her baby, Kurt was happily involved with some guy from an all boys school and Rachel... Rachel was still holding onto what he'd done to her the previous year. It had been horrible, and he'd apologised, but apologising didn't seem to be enough. Jesse knew he had to do something that would bring in the big guns.

Santana might have been the kind of girl to catch his eye once, if his eye hadn't already been caught by a stunning, young Jewish vocalist. And, you know, if she hadn't been gay. Being in a show choir for this long had equipped Jesse with a stunning sense of gaydar.

*


	2. Chapter 2

So, Santana had a plan, and Santana's plans always worked.

She was in the middle of one of those plans when Jesse walked up to her for the first time.

Brittany was at her lockers talking to Artie. Santana was just about to scoff and turn away. It was like she didn't know how to talk to Brittany anymore. Not that she'd ever talked to Brittany about anything important. But now they didn't talk to each other at all. Right now, Artie and Brittany were probably talking about getting back together, and there was nothing Santana could do about it. Okay, so maybe her plans didn’t always work. Whatever.

Santana was turning away from them, and walked right into Jesse.

She turned on him a scathing glare. "Watch it, traitor. What are you, stalking people other than your own personal hobbit now?"

He didn't react, which was infuriating in itself. Instead, he gave her that smug half smile of his. Santana wanted to punch it from his face.

"Hello Santana. You're in as good a mood as ever." With care, Jesse made a show of looking over Santana's shoulder. At Brittany.

She should have walked off when she had the chance. Santana gritted her teeth. "Say anything, and I'll clock you."

Jesse nodded. "I wouldn't dream of saying anything. I'm a man with a plan, Santana. And I hear, in this school, you're the girl guys go to."

Santana set him with a scathing glare, ready to go Lima Heights on his ass if he was suggesting what she thought he might be suggesting. But no. He seemed to be talking about an actual plan. A plan that didn't have anything to do with sex. Right. Because he knew about Brittany. Dammit. Who had spilled to him about her and Brittany?

Attempting to keep at least some cool for this conversation, at least until it really got started and she figured out what he wanted, Santana started walking away from Britt's locker. "Keep going, playboy," she told him.

Putting his hands in his pockets, Jesse followed up easily behind Santana. "It's come to my attention that you suffer from the same issue I suffered during my brief sojourn at your school."

Santana just stopped. Stared at him. "In English, gigolo hair."

If Jesse was taken aback by this, he gave no indication of it. "Talent, Santana. You have it, and it's under appreciated here."

Well, Santana certainly liked to hear that. "Keep going," she allowed.

Jesse gave a brief smile. "You seem bereft of your chosen love, just as I am bereft of mine."

Santana's smile faded. "I hope you're not saying what I think you're saying." It was one thing to imply it, quite another to say it outright. In the halls. At McKinley. Where anybody could hear. It would have been Berry. Of course it was. Who else would have bothered talking to Jesse for the two minutes it would have taken to share the information. That damn midget never could keep her mouth shut.

"It was Rachel," Jesse confirmed. "She informed me of your thwarted love interest. Sapphic, is it not?"

Was he making fun of her? God, he was even using the same language Rachel had used after she sang to Britt that first time. She'd looked it up after Rachel had said it. Sappho, born on the isle of Lesbos. Didn't take a genius to figure out the rest from there. For a while, she couldn't speak to Jesse through her rage.

Jesse continued blithely, clearly ignorant of how close he stood to death. "I'm not concerned with sharing news of your lesbian romance." The fact that he lowered his voice seemed to lend credence to this statement, but still didn't do a lot to calm Santana's rage. "What I am concerned in is renewing my epic love affair with Rachel."

Santana just did not understand that.

"You're devious, Santana. I heard about your plan to have Brittany through getting her to believe it was royal decree."

Wait, he had talked to Karofsky too? He was the only one Santana had shared that particular plan with.

"Too bad it didn't work." Jesse's voice was impassive as he said this.

Santana blinked. This guy was mean. Now she didn't know whether she wanted to punch him, or applaud him. No, she still wanted to punch him.

"What you need is someone as devious as you." And there, Jesse drew himself to his full height, presenting himself to her.

Santana said, "You have got to be kidding."

That was obviously not what Jesse had been expecting.

Santana wasn't finished. "What would possess me to work with you?" In case he wasn't up to speed with her view of him, she offered a very frank up and down stare. If it had been Puck, she might have considered... but no. Why would she consider helping Rachel out with love?

But, what had he said about Brittany? She'd tried getting her on her own. It hadn't worked.

Santana narrowed her eyes. "What did you have in mind?" she said skeptically.

Jesse just smiled.


	3. Chapter 3

"Hey hobbit." Santana paused. She was meant to try to be nice to Rachel. She'd just never guessed it would be so hard.

Rachel looked up from the piano. She’d been listlessly hitting notes, nothing harmonic or even musical. She’d come in here to dance because it cleared her head but then, for the first time ever, Brad the piano guy hadn’t been in here. Rachel... hadn’t really known what to do after that.

Having Jesse and Finn both here, both at the same time was _so_ distracting. Rachel knew that, as an artist, she needed to learn and grow from these things, needed to rise up above it so that her star would be able to shine undiminished when she faced hardship in the big city. On the Broadway. When her life truly began.

It was almost a relief when Santana walked into the choir room. Something that was at least dependable.

“While I appreciate your flare for putting me down, your insults are starting to get a little bit repetitive.” Best to play her role in this play. Rachel put the cover down over the piano keys--gently--and walked towards the sheet music she’d placed on one of the plastic chairs.

Santana followed more slowly. Repetitive? Her insults were top notch, and damned if Berry didn’t see that.

Emitting a very large sigh, Santana pushed that bitter young lesbian vibe down and forced a friendly smile to her features. If it looked more ‘grim’ than ‘friendly’, both Jesse and Rachel were going to have to lump that.

“I’m _sorry_ ,” Santana said. “If I had known my insults upset you, I would have laid off by now.”

Slinking across the choir room, Santana experimented with this new persona by putting an arm over Rachel’s shoulders. The shorter girl started.

“You know, girl friends have to tell each other these things. Keep each other in the loop.”

Another start, smaller this time, and more than made up for by Rachel’s very wide eyes. Rachel was looking at her much more warily since she had started to be nice. Was she doing it wrong? Santana didn't know what to do about that. Best to just keep to the script.

And then Rachel said, “Girlfriends? Like... you’re gay and I have two gay dads?“

Screw the script. Screw buddying up too. Santana’s smile flattened out into a seriously grim line and she pulled back the arm that had been around Rachel’s shoulders. The other girl did _not_ look relieved when she did that. “Girl. Friends. Girls who are friends. Jeez, Berry. Haven’t you ever had a friend before?”

“I..is that what we are?” Rachel queried.

Santana shrugged. “What do you think?”

Rachel licked her lips and Santana stayed nonchalant about it. “I think... I would like that.”

It wasn’t that she was surprised that Santana was expressing overtures of friendship, Rachel told herself. It was the timing of it all. Everything was changing, and it was all changing so fast that Rachel didn’t know if she’d be able to keep up with it all. She already felt like she was lagging dangerously behind in preparations for Nationals. All these changing things were just keeping her attention from it.

Well, never let it be said that Rachel didn’t know how to turn a potentially difficult situation to her own advantage. She drew herself up, a task that was made infinitely easier now that Santana was no longer leaning on her shoulder anymore.

“I have an idea for our first girl friendly bonding activity,” she started.

Santana looked at her with what seemed to be horror, but Rachel straightened her tartan skirt over black tights and told herself that couldn’t be it.

“Oh, that’s too bad,” Santana said, thinking fast and narrowly saving the situation. “I kind of had my own bonding activity in mind.”

Rachel’s lips opened in a sort of ‘O’ shape, then she recovered. “We can do your thing. I don’t mind at all!” Then, “...What _was_ your thing?”

Santana didn’t do subtlety. Mostly, that was because she didn’t really _get_ subtlety. So she just jumped straight in. “Boy talk. You know, cause I’m just not certain I’m done with guys yet. You know.” This might cause her problems, especially considering Rachel’s tendency to blab, but whatever. Nobody important listened to Berry anyway. “How about that Jesse guy?”

Rachel’s heart did something horrible when Santana leered about Jesse like that. “I’m not certain that’s really a good idea,” she said, attempting to hide the expression in her eyes under dark eye lashes.

“Why not?” Santana played it deliberately clueless. “He’s not gay, is he? I mean, I suppose you would know, after last year.”

“What? No! Jesse isn’t gay!”

Mentally, Santana gave a laugh. Jesse would probably try to kill her if this part of their conversation came out. Hah, let him try.

Then she noticed Rachel looked a little bit uncomfortable, and she wondered if she’d taken it too far. That was kind of a problem. Santana wasn’t really the gentle type. Still, she managed to get herself to ask, as if she cared even, “Is something wrong?”

“Wrong? No, not wrong... not, well, not exactly.” Rachel peered at Santana as if trying to figure out whether the ex-cheerleader could be trusted. Really, it wasn’t in Rachel’s nature _not_ to trust someone, however little they may deserve it. “Okay, here’s the thing.”

As Rachel leaned closer to Santana, Santana leaned closer also, widening her eyes in an opening mockery of Rachel’s interest in sharing her own gossip.

“I like Jesse. I _really_ like Jesse,” Rachel said. She closed her eyes and scrunched up her features in such a way as to let Santana know this really was so. “It’s so great that he’s back it’s just... is it terrible to love two people at once?”

“Of course not.” Santana shrugged. Not like she hadn’t done it. She’d totally loved Puck, just as much as she loved Brittany. Only the fact that Santana had become gay had saved Lauren from a total smack-down over stealing her guy.

Rachel looked up sharply, as though she was surprised by Santana’s reply. “It’s... not terrible to love two people at once?” she asked.

Santana just shrugged again. Then blinked, as she remembered the reason why she was here. “I mean, of _course_ it’s not okay to love two people at once...” Santana said, looking off to the side a little as she said this, and hoping Rachel wouldn’t notice.

Rachel didn’t notice. She nodded, as though that was more in line with what she had expected. “Exactly. I know. I feel so awful about it.”

Santana just lifted one finger up. “Hang on. So awful about _what_?”

Rachel blinked. “About my feelings for Jesse. And, my feelings for...” Rachel looked a little bit evasive, as though suddenly remembering again who it was she was talking to. “For.... Finn,” she said, much quieter.

Santana just made an ‘ugh’ sound. “ _Finn_? Why would you want to keep mooning about that noob? I know that you’re a frigid, or whatever, and so you’re not having, like, sex, until you’re ninety, but if that mattered to you at all, I can tell you that you’re not missing out on anything with Finn.”

“Frigid.... wait... what?”

“And another thing. Jesse’s great. Hell, if you weren’t interested, I’d do him myself.”

Rachel couldn’t pretend not to be shocked. “You’d go after Jesse...?” Rachel’s mouth worked, as though she was not even sure which particular point of the two statements to pick up first. “You were one of the people who gave me a hard time last year when I was dating him.”

“Things change,” Santana said. “And he’s not part of Vocal Adrenaline now. He's helping us, which helps me. Point is, you’re not going to be giving him sex, so you want to snatch him up now before he realises there are other people out there who will will have sex with him.”

Rachel eyed Santana with reserve, as though she was trying to figure out--after Santana’s last comment--whether she was counting herself among that number.

“Please,” Santana said, correctly interpreting Rachel’s reserve. “If I wanted to have a go at him, would I be telling you all this?”

*


	4. Chapter 4

“So, how did it go?”

Santana left the choir room after giving Rachel a whole lot to think about. Jesse had been standing outside.

“Jeez,” she said, looking him up and down, before walking straight on past him. “Lurk much? Have you even seen Brittany yet?”

“Yes. As a matter of fact, I did.” Jesse seemed unsure then, which worried Santana more than a bit. If Jesse wasn’t able to put up the goods, she didn’t want to look back and find that he’d made things even worse between her and Brittany.

Walking up to him, until she stood _real close_ , she said to him, “What did you say?”

“I said many things. Didn’t mention you. That would have been too obvious. We skirted around that easily though, talking about Cheerios and Glee club. To be honest, though, I wasn’t getting a whole lot of a vibe that she was into you. She didn’t mention you at all...”

Santana just stared at him as he kept on talking. After a while, before he had shown signs of ending, she interrupted. “Excuse me, but do you _know_ Brittany?”

Jesse looked back at her, none too pleased at being interrupted. He frowned. “Having not gone to this school for long, and having only spent very limited time with all of you in Glee club...”

“Brittany doesn’t _get_ tact. She doesn’t _get_ the whole covert thing you had going on there. She didn’t _mention_ me because she didn’t know you two were _talking_ about me.”

Frustrated beyond belief, Santana got into his face and then promptly stormed away. She didn’t need this. She certainly didn’t need him. She’d manage to get Brittany back on her own. And to think that she’d just wasted valuable minutes back there in the choir room with _Rachel_ when she could have been coming up with her own cunning plan that might actually work!

Jesse was running up from behind her to catch up. “Santana, wait!”

“Nothing to say to you, idiot,” Santana retorted, not slowing her footsteps. Him following along behind her was really not a good idea. For him. Well, for either of them, really. She didn’t particularly want to see herself getting suspended over some natural urge like smashing that snooty nose of his with her fist.

“Santana. Okay. I admit, I may have gone about this a little bit in the wrong way.”

A _little bit_?

Jesse stood in front of her. Santana glared, but didn’t hit him. Yet.

“Although I believe I understand where I seem to have gone wrong, all is not lost. We can fix this.”

Santana stared at him with blatant disbelief. “Oh, and how are we going to do that?”

“Hey Jesse. Hey Santana.” Brittany walked up by them in the corridor. Artie was nowhere in sight. Brittany seemed a little bit uncertain about her reception with Santana but, from the way that she glanced towards Jesse, and he nodded his head encouragingly, Santana wondered if Jesse wasn’t helping her after all.

 _Had_ she known that Jesse was trying to feel her out about Santana? No, she couldn’t have.

But... she was no longer completely sure.

“Hey Britt.” Santana felt like that shitty sort of shy teenager they wrote songs about. She hated everyone else that walked by them in the corridor, hated Jesse for standing there beside them. Hated him for the fact that she felt like she needed him.

“Do we have Glee club rehearsal today?” Brittany asked.

Santana frowned. “Of course we do. It’s Nationals next week.”

“Oh, good!” Brittany smiled. “I was worried I wouldn’t see you today.”

“You saw me in Spanish this morning.”

“Oh, oh yeah.” Brittany smiled absently. “Well, I’ll see you in Glee club later then. Bye Jesse.”

Jesse just lifted a hand to wave goodbye to her. Santana could feel his eyes on her after Brittany disappeared down the hall.

“What?” Santana demanded harshly. “What?!”

“Not exactly friendly to her, are you?” Jesse asked, as though it didn’t matter to him one way or the other at all.

“Who even asked you?”

*

But she was thinking about it despite herself as they all piled in for Glee club rehearsal later that afternoon.

Jesse was already standing near the piano, next to Mr Shue, when Santana arrived. Rachel was babbling something inane. Santana tuned that out out of habit, which then made it a lot more obvious that, when she wasn’t pining over Finn, she was glancing in Jesse’s direction to see if he was looking towards her.

Brittany was talking to Tina when she arrived. She smiled at Santana, but she didn’t jump up and point out the seat that she’d kept aside for her like she used to. Santana missed it, though she never would have admitted it.

Instead, she went to sit next to Quinn, who shot her what looked like a combination of a glare and a look of surprise.

Santana immediately went on the offensive. “What’s your problem?”

Quinn immediately backed off. Her body language clearly signaled that this was not a fight she needed today, and that suited Santana just fine. They used to be best friends. Instead of listening to whatever Shue was saying up in front, Santana took a moment to ponder what this would have all been like if it had been Quinn by her side, not Jesse.

Mercedes had been working on an Alicia Keyes song, Superwoman, for Nationals. Rachel joined in. It wasn’t exactly the sort of song Mike could pop and lock to, but Quinn started swaying gently in her seat next to Santana.

As Mercedes started the bridge, Santana took that and Quinn’s swaying as an invitation to get up and start dancing. Never one to miss out on an opportunity--as Santana had known she wouldn’t--Brittany got up and started moving in front of her. After that, the rest of the choir room ceased to exist, for the amount of attention Santana gave it.

At the slowest parts of the song, Santana drew Brittany towards her, spun her around. Brittany’s smile was gorgeous; her face was glowing, and Santana almost forgot to keep that mask of impartiality on her face. Brittany was so lost in the music. Why couldn’t Santana do that?

Before the end of it, Tina had drawn Mike into a sort of a slow dance / waltz hybrid.

After that, Kurt had a song he wanted to put forward for Nationals. Mr Shue had been in a more laid back mood, probably just to offset Jesse’s sense of how a Glee club ‘should’ be run. Didn’t matter to Santana. She just tried to make it look casual as she went back to the seat that was next to Brittany.

*

It was not lost on Jesse the looks that Rachel was shooting his way. His responses tended to alternate between cool nods, astute remarks that he knew would impress her, or looking carefully considering while Mr Shue spoke.

All in all, it would have been a perfect session of Glee club, if it hadn’t been for the way that Rachel was also looking at Finn.

Mercedes was a good singer, she just wasn’t Rachel good, or even Vocal Adrenaline good. Jesse’s attention in the song only really picked up when Rachel started singing. When she sang, it was like all distractions went away, like all of her was going into the song she was singing. It was the way that singing should be. Jesse watched as Mercedes tried to draw Rachel out of that single minded brilliance. He’d noticed, since coming back, that Rachel had lost something in gaining a closer friendship with Mercedes and Kurt. She wasn’t as cut throat about her talent, which went against everything Jesse had ever learnt about singing and show choirs.

It was becoming more and more clear Mr Shue didn’t have any idea on how to run a winning show choir. That was more than evidenced when New Directions came in last the year before. Jesse had asked Mr Shue if he wanted to know what Vocal Adrenaline had come in their Nationals the year before. First, that was the answer. That was why Mr Shue had hired him as a consultant.

If it hadn’t been for it being a facade through which he could more easily come back into Rachel’s life again, Jesse might have been upset by the way that his ideas for New Directions kept getting pushed back. They were getting close to Nationals again. Jesse had hoped to use their Glee club to prove to Rachel just how amazing he really was. But there were other ways to prove that.

Kurt’s song wasn’t even worth the time it took for him to sing it.

Jesse went to Rachel after Glee club was letting out. He knew the habit Rachel had for lingering in the choir room after practice was done, sorting through her sheet music, making sure it was in order, making sure also that she didn’t miss anything important that might give her a heads up for the next week.

It was commendable. Jesse paused to talk to Mr Shue about something to waste the same amount of time so that he was readying to leave at around the same time as Rachel was.

“Hello Rachel,” he said. He enjoyed watching the way his smile effected her. So many other girls had been too easy. He knew Rachel understood that artists like them didn’t appreciate things that came to them too easy. If he was honest with himself, there was some part of him that enjoyed the challenge to Rachel’s attention that Finn represented.

Just as long as ‘challenge’ was all. The time was already drawing near where that distraction would outlive any usefulness.

“Jesse.” The slightly breathless way Rachel always managed to say his name always ran a thrill through his chest. There was definitely chemistry there; the kind that, in their inevitable stardom on the Broadway, would set the stage to sizzling.

“Can I walk you to your locker?” he asked her.

“Of course,” Rachel said, with two quick nods of her head.

She could barely keep her eyes off him. Snatches of the conversation she had had with Santana kept flashing through her head. Was it really better to claim him before someone more willing to have sex shared an interest? That she wanted him was already showing to be a distraction to her. Maybe it wouldn’t really be so much more of a distraction if she were to have him.

But then, there was Finn as well...

“What did you think of the song choice today?” Best to stick to well-trod conversational topics. She did her best to push the memory of Santana’s words from her head.

Unlike with Finn, Rachel knew that this question would be meaningful for both of them. It took on a certain importance then, tipping the Finn/Jesse scale once more ever so slightly to Jesse’s side.

“Not your best.” Jesse thought that honesty was always the right answer, especially in situations concerning music. “But, then, it wasn’t your song choice for Nationals, was it?”

Rachel smiled at him. He knew her so well. They approached her locker, and she leaned in to twirl out her locker combination. “No. I want to do original songs for Nationals,” she said.

“I know. How are you going with that project?”

Rachel looked up from her locker. Jesse looked so encouraging, that Rachel hated to tell him that she was failing at something. Would that change his opinion of her? She hedged.

“It’s been going... “ She shook her head, opting for reaching into the back of her locker over sharing her next piece of information to his face. “I kissed someone who was gay.”

Jesse did not follow her abrupt subject change. He inclined his head and said, rather awkwardly, “Someone who was a... man?” He hoped that was where she was going with this. If it wasn’t... things really had changed since the last time he was at McKinley, and not in a way he thought he could use to his advantage.

“Of course it was!” Rachel pulled out of her locker to stare at Jesse. Then her eyes widened, and her jaw dropped. “Oh! You thought..! Oh!!”

“No!” Jesse waved his hands between them, just as awkward as she. “I never thought...” He closed his mouth on that sentence. Too damn easy to pick apart. Thankfully, Rachel wasn’t the mean sort, and didn’t give him a hard time for it.

“A guy,” Rachel reiterated, somewhat more calmly this time. It was as though she calmer in the face of Jesse’s unrest. “Kurt’s guy, actually. Before he was... Kurt’s guy. Boyfriend.” Rachel licked her lips. It was obviously time to move on from this point. She pushed away from her locker and started walking. “I thought that that would inspire me, give something to write about. To sing about.” She glanced towards Jesse as they walked. “Obviously that wasn’t the right kind of pain.”

Jesse nodded sagely. He knew better than to bring up any of the pain he had caused her. Obviously that was the wrong kind of pain to benefit his purposes. “Do you need a... Do you need some help?”

Rachel smiled, and it was radiant. “Nobody else has asked me that. I would love that.”

Jesse bowed his head. “I’m here to please,” he said, extending his arm to her.

Rachel accepted his arm, but eyed him archly. “Not here to please _everyone_ ,” she reminded him, thinking of the way he had torn Mercedes, Santana and Kurt to the ground.

“Not everyone,” Jesse amended.


	5. Chapter 5

“It can't have escaped your attention that Rachel kissed the caveman at Nationals..?"

"Finn? What do you care about that? It wasn't your Nationals he fucked up." She bet he was real happy about it too. She'd noticed Vocal Adrenaline had had no trouble winning their Nationals.

"Hard as it may seem to believe, I don't exactly _enjoy_ flying out to New York only to watch the woman I love locking lips with some neanderthal," Jesse replied. “I feel that I’ve already articulated exactly what I thought about that.” Although he’d had a couple of hour long rants about how unprofessional that kiss had been already, he kept finding that he still had more ammo to go.

Santana couldn't fault his choice of words for describing Finn. “Yeah? Well maybe I’m not done _articulating_ yet. At least you didn’t get the ‘just good friends’ speech.” Santana slammed shut her locker door, leaving the voodoo doll she’d made of Rachel behind. What was the use of it? It hadn’t worked anyway. And, if Jesse saw it, he’d probably just get more pissed or something.

Jesse just raised his eyebrows. “Isn’t that what you’ve always been?”

“It’s never been all that we’ve been!” Santana glared at his lame attempt to belittle what she and Britt shared. Used to share. No. Santana was not admitting defeat over this. Brittany just had to be shown better, that was all. Santana had been teaching her stuff since they’d first gone into middle school together. This was just another of those things.

Staring at the hard eyes under Pantene hair, Santana sighed. “I guess this means we’re still working together.”

“No need to sound so happy about it,” Jesse returned.

“I’m not happy about it. If I was happy about it, Brittany would be with me already. I would _not_ be here with you.” Santana crossed her arms and narrowed her eyes. “You wouldn’t be happy about this because you’re digging the excuse to keep hanging around me? Cause if that’s what’s up...” Santana left the sentence hanging.

But Jesse shook his head. “Not even slightly.”

“Good.” Her arms were still crossed. Santana wasn’t sure whether she was pleased or offended with the ease in which Jesse had discounted her like that. She needed to do something to recover the reputation that she had. “Cause, you know, I’m hot stuff. It gets exhausting that I have to keep shoving people away.”

“Of course,” Jesse answered, obligingly.

Too obligingly? Santana glanced at Jesse, attempting to discern whether she needed to slap him upside the head. Whatever he was thinking, there was no easy indication that it was anything negative against her. “Fine,” she said. Just like that, Santana came up with an idea. “We’re going to have to have a party.”

“A party?”

“One of those things where everyone gets drunk and starts taking off their clothes? Yes, a party. It will be the perfect environment for me to get Brittany to fall in love with me.”

Ugh. Now she was starting to _sound_ like one of those shitty teenagers they wrote songs about.

But Jesse wasn’t noticing that. He was too busy lapping it up.“Great! We’ll have it at my house. My parents are hardly ever there, and we have a backyard pool...”

Santana shut him up with a ‘pssht’ sound. “Of course we’re not going to have it at your house. No one will even show up. We’ll have it at mine. That way, everyone will be too afraid not to come.”

*

The party was a grand idea to blow off steam and send off the end of the high school year. In a couple of ways, it was like the last party during school, the one that had happened at Rachel’s house. Puck arrived first and supplied the booze; everyone had put in five bucks and that had bought all the wine.

Rachel was holding her hand up in the car beside Jesse as he drove them over to Santana. “I don’t remember Puck asking around for money this time. I hope that means there will be alcohol waiting at the party. Just in case, I brought money along with me this time. I can put money in for you, if you want?”

Jesse just looked at her, but he didn’t say anything. More important than redirecting Rachel on the fact that he had helped organise this party, and so of course there was alcohol, was getting them each to the party in one piece.

He should have remembered that Rachel was incredibly distracting when one was driving. Well, not _more_ distracting. More... it was more of a problem that she was distracting when he was going 30 miles an hour.

Pulling up in front of Santana’s place, Jesse turned to Rachel.

“Rachel, we’ve been through Nationals, now. You know I didn’t try to ruin things for you this year.” Jesse paused here, maintaining eye contact to make sure she really did believe this. Rachel nodded her head once, so Jesse went on. “Actually, if we’re counting love interests of yours who did seem to have it in for your team this year, I think Finn should be at the top of the list...”

“Jesse.” Rachel frowned, and shook her head once. “Don’t.”

“Don’t what?” Jesse turned in his seat. The car swayed slightly, but Jesse wasn’t in the mood to be distracted. “Don’t we get to talk about things anymore?”

Rachel opened her mouth, then closed it. Then opened it again. Nothing came out at any time. “Sure we get to talk about things, Jesse. We talk all the time.”

“Not about anything that counts.”

Another frown. “Jesse...”

Instead of letting her finish that sentence, Jesse reached for her. Rachel looked shocked, which just told Jesse she hadn’t been paying attention. “Tell me, right now, Rachel. Did I ruin us forever last year? Do we have any chance together now?”

Rachel’s eyes drifted from his face to his hold on her arm. She didn’t quite seem to be able to get a full breath. “I... don’t know,” she said, but she made no attempt to move out of his hold. “Things with Finn are just...”

“Screw Finn.” At her sharp look then, Jesse continued, “You didn’t want to talk about Finn before. We’re not talking about Finn.” His jaw was very tight as he said this.

Another pause as Rachel stared at Jesse, reading his expression. “Okay,” she said slowly. “That’s fair.” She bit her lip then; didn’t know what to say.

Jesse shook his head, his hair shifting with the sharp movement. “I need to know, Rachel. You can’t just keep me hanging on like this.”

“I’m not...”

“Then tell me!”

Jesse’s eyes bored into hers, and Rachel found herself powerless to look away.

“I...” Rachel just didn’t know what to say. They didn’t sing about these things in the songs she listened to. Sure, there was Marius, in Les Miserables, in love with Éponine and Cosette, but it had been pretty obvious from the start which one of them Marius was meant to be with. It was obvious at all which of Jesse or Finn that Rachel was meant to be with.

As the silence stretched out between them, Jesse made a sound of disgust. He let go of Rachel’s arm, thrusting it from him harshly.

He opened and closed the car door before Rachel had even unclipped her seat belt. He was at the front door before she could catch up with him. The door was unlocked, and Jesse let himself in.

*

“You’re the one who helped Kurt get back into McKinley... Santana, wasn’t it?” Blaine had been really zen ever since he and Kurt had told each other they loved each other. Not that that was the reason why he’d come up to Santana at this party. She’d done a really nice thing for her boy, and she deserved some recognition for it.

Santana looked up at the boy toy that Kurt had brought into Santana’s party, without asking her, she might add.

“One would think you’d figure out someone’s name before coming to their party,” she said smartly.

“Point,” Blaine replied. He grinned. “Alright, you caught me. I know exactly who you are. What I can’t figure out is why Kurt isn’t more grateful for what you did.”

“Well,” Santana made a hand gesture. “I am kinda a bitch.”

Blaine chuckled under his breath. Damn, Santana had to hand it to Kurt. This first boyfriend that he’d managed to pick up had a really nice smile. That was, if Santana happened to notice that sort of thing anymore.

“That’s exactly what Kurt said,” Blaine answered.

“I’ll bet.”

“You know, though,” Blaine made a show of tapping his chin with the end of his forefinger, and looking into her. Santana wasn’t sure she was comfortable with that gaze. “I’ll bet that there’s much more to you than that.”

“Yeah? What makes you say that?” Santana narrowed her eyes but, inside, she was curious.

Blaine smiled. “Because you’re talking to me. And you’re about to let me say thank you for helping Kurt out, as if that was all there was to your machinations.”

Santana smiled. If he even knew the diverse number of her machinations...

“So. Here I go.” Blaine looked up to her, as if to gauge if she was ready for this, then gestured for her to sit. Santana pretty much allowed him to do this, still with a little smirk upon her lips. “Santana,” he said, once they were both sitting. “I wish to give my sincerest gratitude for helping Kurt out with Karofsky, for doing what we couldn’t, and returning him back to the friends that he loves. You’re a pretty brilliant woman, Santana.”

“Oh, stop it.” Santana rolled her eyes, her cheeks starting to flush a little in that way they did sometimes before she cried. She swore it was the alcohol.

She was still talking to Blaine when Jesse walked, well rather stomped, into the house.

“Hi,” Santana said, looking from where she was sitting and immediately judging his mood to suck. “Thought you were bringing Rachel.” She glanced behind him as though expecting Rachel to come in the door any second now.

“I did.” Jesse’s eyes were like thunderclouds, but he didn’t look at Santana, or Blaine, who was sitting beside her.

Blaine looked between Jesse and Santana.

“Uh, right then...” he said, leveraging himself up off the seat beside Santana. “I think I’m going to make my exit here.” He disappeared from sight before Rachel arrived at the door.

“Fuck this,” Jesse said, giving absolutely no explanation whatsoever, as he went further into the house, in search of alcohol.

Which was when Rachel walked in.

Santana looked her up and down. “Well, haven’t you fucked something up tonight!”

Rachel stopped in the middle of closing the door. Her eyes were wide, and her mouth was open.

“Say something. You look like a disabled monkey, or something.” Santana stared at her, waiting for the other girl to step further into her house.

Rachel came the rest of the way into the house, closing the door behind her.

“I realise that you think you have to have an opinion on everyone’s relationship...”

Rachel stopped. For two reasons. One, weren’t they meant to be friends now? Or, whatever passed for friends with Santana. And two... she wasn’t even sure that Santana was wrong.

Unexpectedly, she burst into tears.

“Hey!” Santana jumped back at the first sign of liquid seeping out of Rachel’s eyes. “I don’t do tears, right?”

“I’m sorry,” Rachel said, trying to keep her weeping hushed, lest Jesse overhear and come back to see it. Her fingers were already reaching for her eyes, wiping at the tears that had already fallen, and trying to make sure there would be no mascara stains. “I’m sorry.”

“Look...” Santana licked her lips. “It’s a party. Do whatever you need to get over it. There’s alcohol. Get drunk.”

Rachel nodded her head rather morosely. Picking up that this was the most support she was likely to get from Santana, she stuttered out a thank you.

“Whatever,” Santana said, shutting her down quickly, as Puck and Brittany walked in through the door. “Go drink.”

She turned away and Rachel did her best to pull herself together.

In the kitchen, Jesse was pouring himself a drink with Tina and Mike. Seeing her arrive in the kitchen, he downed the glass in one gulp before reaching for more.

“Shots!” Tina called out, and Mike was already nodding in agreement before she and Jesse started pouring.

Rachel felt herself growing more introverted as the other three went on ignoring her. When Finn walked in and loudly greeted them with a, “Hey everyone!” Jesse just up and left the room, making Rachel feel even worse.

“Shots?” Tina suggested to Finn.

“God, yes please!” Rachel cried, surprising Tina, Finn and, she supposed, Mike.

*

It took him seven shots to realise for himself... Brittany really wasn't that smart.

Seven shots, and Finn almost entirely monopolising the kitchen, meant that Jesse had found a seat in the living room and was sitting there pretty exclusively. The seat dipped, and Jesse was pretty sure that the stuffing was only half there. Jesse was wondering just how old this piece of furniture was when Brittany plonked herself down next to him.

“Whoa, great party, huh?” Brittany had obviously had not much less than seven shots herself,

"You do know that Santana is enamoured of you, don't you?" The problem with Jesse having had seven shots by this point in the night was that it took away his ability to say words like ‘enamoured’ clearly.

Brittany just looked at him. As to whether she would have understood his use of enamoured even without his hopelessly slurring of the word, that was another matter.

In any case, Jesse remembered what Santana had said to him the last time they spoke. "Uh... you know that Santana likes you, right?"

Brittany gazed at him, as though he were the strange one. "Of course I do."

Jesse waited, but Brittany didn't offer anything else. "Then... why don't you talk to her about it?"

Still blank, Brittany replied, "I was with Artie. And then she was with Karofsky. She doesn't love me anymore. She said so."

Small words, Jesse reminded himself. Dumb it down.

"Brittany, Santana still loves you." We sure as hell wouldn't be having this conversation if she didn't, Jesse thought, unsure if that was too harsh a thing to say to this girl.

As Brittany looked at him, still blank, Jesse hoped to god Santana was having better luck with communicating his feelings to Rachel.

*


	6. Chapter 6

"So... I heard that you still might love me."

Brittany was shy about approaching Santana. Every time she did, lately, the darker girl snapped at her. But this was important, and you went up to people regardless of whether they snapped at you when it was important.

Santana turned to face her. She wasn't snapping, yet, but there was this awful distance in her eyes. "Yeah? What of it?"

Brittany licked her lips, before asking hesitantly, "Is it true?"

Santana shrugged. She _really_ hadn’t had enough alcohol for this. "Sure. Whatever, Britt. Yeah."

*

Rachel had drunk a lot of alcohol to brace her for coming up towards Jesse again. Not quite so much as she’d had the night she kissed Blaine. Actually, she’d been noticing that Kurt had been keeping her away from Blaine every since he noticed how much she’d had to drink.

She’d also been trying not to talk to Finn a lot tonight, which was difficult considering he kept on coming up to her.

When Rachel found Jesse, she saw him watching some conversation Santana and Brittany were having. She tried not to feel jealous that he was watching Santana. Santana and Rachel were friends now. Santana had said she wouldn’t try to make any moves on Jesse.

She just wished that she believed it.

“Hey!” she said, her voice falsely bright. Her volume was soft-ish, but managing to rise over the music and the noise in the house.

Jesse turned around to look at her. His eyebrows hovered heavily over his eyes in a glare.

He turned away.

“Hey,” Rachel said again, rushing over to him, and actually placing her hand on his arm. He looked at that again first, not at her, just at the hand she’d placed on him. Suddenly, Rachel wasn’t completely sure it had been a good idea to place her hand on his arm. But, with the expression he was pulling, she sure wasn’t going to be taking it away yet.

She just wished that her head wasn’t so fuzzy.

“What do you want, Rachel?” he asked, trying to focus more on the slur in his voice than on the way her hand felt on his arm.

“I want things to be okay between us,” Rachel said.

“Yeah, well.” Jesse didn’t mean to sound so belligerent but, hey, being turned down by Rachel seemed to have that effect on him.

“Look, this isn’t all my fault, okay!” Rachel was quick to raise her voice, quicker to quieten it again when she realised other Glee clubbers may not be as drunk as she was. The rest was said in a loud stage whisper. “I would have done anything for you. In return, you broke eggs over my head!”

“I said sorry for that,” Jesse said, equally incensed.

“Well, sorry doesn’t make it all better. I loved you...”

Jesse moved towards her, grabbing her by the shoulders and taking her in a kiss. Rachel gasped into his mouth, but kissing him was familiar, and she was drunk, and he was just so pretty.

It wasn’t the height of care and passion that she remembered from their less drunken kisses, but Rachel was still very flushed by the time he pulled away from her.

“I’m not letting you go, Rachel. I can’t. If you really loved me, you must love me still.”

Rachel just peered at him, her mouth still feeling impossibly swollen from his kisses, and wanting more.

“Am I right, Rachel? Do you still love me?”

“Hey.” The voice was sudden, and wholly unwelcome. Rachel closed her eyes, wishing Finn away. How much had he seen, and what was he thinking?

Rachel didn’t get a chance to get much of an impression on these things. If it hadn’t already happened at prom, Rachel wouldn’t have had the heads up on what was about to happen. Jesse’s expression went stony, and Rachel darted in front of him while he was still pulling his arm back.

“Whoa, man," Finn was saying. "Not in Santana’s house. Are you crazy?”

“Finn, please. You’re not helping. Just... go away. Please.”

Finn’s expression was hurt surprise, but he did what Rachel asked.

“Sure. Whatever you want, Rach.” He ducked his head, and went away, looking over his shoulder back at them only once.

Rachel only had eyes for Jesse.

“Yes, okay yes,” she told him impatiently.

Jesse squinted at Rachel. “Yes?”

Rachel rolled her eyes. “Are you really going to make me say it?”

“I’m going to make you say it,” Jesse said. He moved closer to her again, all thoughts of Finn and violence washed out of his head by what she’d said, and what he hoped she’d say. “I’m going to make you say it, again, and again, and...” He raised his eyebrows at her, waiting poignantly for her next words.

“Wait!” This was stupid. The alcohol had made her head too fuzzy, or else she would have thought of this first. Because it was so important. Otherwise Rachel Berry was just heading into another fruitless relationship like the one she’d entered into with Finn, and she'd promised herself that she wasn't going to do that. Because if Jesse didn’t have any plans to come to New York, then nothing serious could ever really happen between them, and she needed to know that before anything happened between them now.

Jesse saw the change come over her expression but, before he could say or do anything to avert it, Rachel railroaded onward.

“I’m going to New York at the end of the year.”

Without missing a beat, Jesse said, “Well that's great. I was planning to do that this year. We can wait and do it together, if you want to.”

“No...” Rachel gazed into Jesse’s eyes, seeing him, really seeing him, for the first time, and very much liking what she saw. “I'm not going to hold you back. You should go.”

“Will you come to me?” Jesse wished they weren’t having this conversation under the influence of alcohol. At least he thought he wasn’t slurring so much anymore.

Rachel leaned into him. She thought she might almost have lost her balance and fallen into him, but managed to save face by making it look deliberate. “Just try to stop me!”

She hadn’t made her fall look deliberate. Jesse grabbed her, and held her tight. “Tell me, Rachel. Tell me now. I need to hear it.”

“Alright. Alright!” Rachel said, laughing a little despite herself. “I love you. I still love you, okay?”

She only really got half way through the second time she said it, before Jesse grabbed her and kissed her again, not caring or knowing if anyone was watching.

*

Jesse frowned at Santana. It was a difficult thing to do, in light of what had just happened with Rachel, but he felt the disappointment in Santana's performance all the same. "I handed her to you. Don't tell me you didn't realise you were supposed to catch?"

"It's complicated, a'right?" Santana didn't _need_ this right now.

She felt bad enough about how she’d screwed up with Brittany--again--without Shampoo Ad giving her a hard time about it. She wasn’t concerned about herself slurring at all.

"Why do you even care?" She demanded, putting the spotlight squarely on him. He liked the spotlight, didn't he? Well, she was about to give him a belly full of it. "You've got your midget again. Everything’s _peachy_ for you.”

Jesse caught her arm when she would have stalked off. “Yes. I have gotten _Rachel_ back,” he said, emphasising her name as though that would help Santana remember it. “And I did that because I admitted to her what I felt.”

“You did what?”

Santana lifted bleary eyes to find Frankenteen looming over them.

“Oh no, way too much drama for Tana,” Santana decreed, before getting up, swaying somewhat, and making her way into the bathroom.

“Hi Finn,” Jesse said, unable to refrain from offering the taller guy at least one smug smile.

*

Santana gazed into the mirror at herself as the music switched on to something softer, something more gentle than the majority of Glee kids had been singing and dancing to moments before.

 _Get a hold of yourself,_ she told her reflection. _Why can’t you do this thing? Jesse managed to do this. He did manage to put Brittany right in front of you. And what did you do? Push her away. She’s not going to keep coming back to you._

Santana’s olive skinned face seemed unnaturally pale underneath the florescent lights of the bathroom. She could hide her face behind layers of makeup and her long, flowing hair, but it wouldn’t make the problem go away.

As much as she hated to say it, Jesse was right.

And, she really hated to say it.

So she didn’t. Instead, Santana flicked her hair behind her shoulders and strutted out into the main living area. Without looking at or acknowledging any other people in the room, Santana located Brittany and sat herself down between her legs.

“You staying here tonight?” she asked Britt quietly.

“If you want me to,” Brittany said.

Santana drifted light fingers from Brittany’s knee to her ankle. “I want you to.”

Instead of melting into her touch like she usually to, Santana could have sworn Brittany stiffened slightly, before she relaxed.

*

The party went late. Blaine surprised her--and Kurt from the looks of it!--by leaning in to give her a hug on his and Kurt’s way out. Rachel wasn’t that brave. She just leaned close to touch Santana’s arm, and say softly, “It’ll be alright.”

Santana didn’t think Rachel had ever said anything softly.

And Jesse had obviously been talking.

Puck all but carried a very drunken Finn out of the place. Santana didn’t know where Zizes had been that night, she hadn’t asked. Just as well if the other girl knew her place, though, and didn’t come over to Santana’s place.

Tina, Mike and Quinn were saying goodbye to Brittany. Santana paused just out of their sight to watch the way Brittany interacted with them. She was sweet, as sweet as Santana knew her to be, and Santana was just so sick of watching from the sidelines.

“There’s something I want to say to you,” Santana said, after everyone had left, and it was only Santana, and Brittany, alone on Santana’s bed.

“We’re going to talk?” Britt said hopefully.

“We’re going to talk.”

Santana indulgently curled her fingers in Brittany’s hair, noticing but not minding the way the thin strands were knotted from so much dancing through the night.

“I’m sorry I fobbed you off earlier tonight, Britt. I’m really no good at this stuff.”

“That doesn’t matter to me, San. You keep on trying. It’s good.” Brittany made every impression of listening intently to every word Santana said. Her eyes were eager, which made Santana just want to make this work that much faster.

“I want to be good for you,” Santana said. This wasn’t the alcohol speaking through her. She’d made sure not to take any more drinks since the point when she’d touched Brittany and thought she felt her flinch. She wanted to be sure she didn’t stuff this up again, wanted to be sure she didn’t accidentally push Brittany away. “There’s this... song that came on tonight. It made me think of you.”

If Brittany thought of making anything of the fact that Santana never spoke when she could sing, it didn’t show. Her face was innocent, as guileless as a child, while she waited for the song Santana wanted to share.

Without any background noise or accompaniment, Santana began to sing the Sarah McLachlan song that had played earlier during the night. She didn’t even know how it had gotten onto the playlist for tonight. Probably some random junk from her mom’s trash’n’treasure collection. But she was glad it had now.

 _Tell you all the things that I never said before  
Don’t tell me it’s too late  
Cause I’ve relied on my illusions..._

Reaching out, Brittany took Santana’s hands, and told her with her eyes that it was going to be okay.

 _I've been up all night drinking  
To drown my sorrow down  
Nothing seems to help me since you went away..._

Her voice was thin, near to breaking, but the melody was sweet, and simple, just like the point of the song.

Getting to the end of the song, Santana clears her throat, and finally dares to speak outside of the lyrics that the song has given her.

“Don’t go away, Britt,” Santana asked her, through the tears that she finally let fall. “Don’t leave me.”

And then Brittany kissed her. Even though Santana didn’t, Brittany told her and showed her she loved her in every touch and gesture. When they fell asleep that night, it was in a tangled mess of limbs, but it was in love, not just in lust.

*

“One day, you’re going to be able to tell me you love me without singing a song about it,” Brittany said, hands tangling through Santana’s hair.

“Yeah.” Santana didn’t sound too confident about that observation. “That’s not going to be any time soon.”

“That’s okay.” Brittany nosed her way into the hollow between Santana’s neck and collarbone and, for once, Santana didn’t squirm away nervously. “I’m willing to wait.”


End file.
